A celebration of cocktails that have been lost, forgotten or mutilated over time.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Exhibit #71: Beer Cocktails

This week we'll be doing something a bit different for the Cocktail Museum - beer cocktails. St. Louis Craft Beer Week begins on this evening, so this is our contribution to this city-wide, week-long event. As one might expect, beer cocktails are a rather thin genre in the literature (and many are hot drinks inappropriate for summer), so we are also supplementing with some modern creations of our own.

Gin & Saison $7This modern tipple has been turning up in some of our bigger drinking cities in the last couple years. The botanicals infused in gin complement the funky barnyard aromas of a saison quite well: Hayman's Old Tom gin paired with Boulevard's Tank 7.

Imperial Stout Punch $8Our take on the more traditional Guinness Punch swaps out Old Rasputin for the dry stout, and is blended with condensed milk, a whole egg, and grated nutmeg. Best. Beer. Milkshake. Ever.

Shandy Gaff $5The Shandy is actually a fairly old drink, dating from the mid 19th century when Irish ginger ale began being sold in England: equal parts Schlafly Pale and Vernor's ginger ale - one of the few extant ginger ales that remains close to the original Irish style - golden colored with a more pronounced ginger flavor and a bit sweeter than the 'dry' style of today.

Stout Nogg $72 parts imperial stout (Old Rasputin) to 1 part traditional bourbon-based egg nogg - now aged 9 months and very mellow. Last winter we made this with KBS as Breakfast Nogg and it was named one of the best drinks of the year by the Post Dispatch.

Zwack Attack $7It's not entirely unusual in parts of some German-speaking countries to add liquor to beer - usually cordials like kummel or kirschwasser. Our in-house hooligans, erm employees, one day decided to try this approach with the Hungarian digestif Zwack mixed into a glass of schwarzbier (Xingu) and the result was damn tasty. Now it's your turn!